Referring now to FIG. 1, a functional block diagram of a vehicle 100 is presented. The vehicle 100 includes an engine 102, which generates torque to propel the vehicle 100. Air is drawn into the engine 102 through an intake manifold 104. A throttle valve 106 controls airflow into the engine 102. The throttle valve 106 may include a throttle plate 108, which may block all of or a portion of an opening in the throttle valve 106. An electronic throttle control (ETC) motor 109 controls the throttle valve 106 and/or the throttle plate 108.
The air flowing through the throttle valve 106 is mixed with fuel from one or more fuel injectors 110 to form an air-fuel mixture. The air-fuel mixture is combusted within one or more cylinders 112 of the engine 102. Combustion of the air-fuel mixture may be initiated by, for example, a spark delivered by a spark plug 114. Although the spark plug 114 is depicted, the engine 102 may include a compression-combustion type engine that does not include the spark plug 114. The combustion of the air-fuel mixture generates torque. Resulting exhaust gas is expelled from the cylinders 112 to an exhaust system 116.
An engine control module (ECM) 130 modulates torque output from the engine 102. The ECM 130 may modulate torque by controlling the airflow through the throttle valve 106, the fuel injected by the fuel injectors 110, and/or the timing of the spark delivered by the spark plug 114. The ECM 130 may modulate torque based upon, for example, a pedal position signal from a pedal position sensor 134 and/or signals from other sensors 136. The pedal position sensor 134 generates the pedal position signal based upon actuation of an accelerator pedal 138 by a driver. The other sensors 136 may include, for example, a mass air flow (MAF) sensor, a manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor, an engine speed sensor, a transmission sensor, a cruise control system, and/or a traction control system.